From: Hal Finney (hal@finney.org)
Date: Fri Apr 26 2002 - 11:47:47 MDT
Slashdot had a story yesterday about an article claiming that the
U.S. government is quietly beginning to move nanotech out of the public
sector and bring it under military control.
http://www.techcentralstation.com/1051/techwrapper.jsp?PID=1051-250&CID=1051-042402B
No Nano Secrecy, Please
By Glenn Harlan Reynolds
I've been hearing some disturbing things about nanotechnology
lately. I don't swear that they're accurate, but I'm getting whispers
and too-pointed-I-can-neither-confirm-nor-deny remarks that suggest
that the federal government is ever so quietly beginning an effort
to shut down or limit civilian nanotechnology research.
...
It may be, of course, that the accounts I'm getting are distorted,
and that the "guidance" that the federal government is attempting is
really something more akin to what is recommended in the Foresight
Institute guidelines regarding molecular nanotechnology: a set of
recommendations for sound engineering practices and other safeguards
designed to discourage abuse while not giving up what Arthur Kantrowitz
calls the weapon of openness. But that's not what I'm hearing.
Of course as he presents the information here, it is just a rumor
without any cited sources. Nevertheless it would hardly be a surprise
if the strategic importance of this technology eventually got through
to the governments of the world and they took this kind of action.
The main question is whether practical applications are close enough
today that the government would feel threatened by continuing to fund
public sector research.
Probably the only real tipoff will be to look at how the funding comes
down over the next few years. Will more and more funds be devoted to
"ersatz nanotech", the growing body of research that manages to cram
"nano" into the name just to line up at the trough? Will we see funding
for efforts that could actually lead to MNT, the kinds of research
highlighted at the Foresight conferences? It will be interesting to
see how that works out.
Hal
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